It has been a long time coming, but the Browns are finally getting their private workout with Johnny Manziel.
The former Texas A&M quarterback, a lightning rod in the 2014 draft, will work out for the Browns hierarchy this weekend. The workout was first reported by Adam Caplan of ESPN.
The Browns and Bears are the only teams that skipped Manziel’s pro day in College Station, Texas, last month. Browns general manager Ray Farmer said he doesn’t take much stock in orchestrated pro days and said he and the rest of the Browns entourage would learn more from a private workout.
Manziel has been coached by George Whitfield, a former Arena League quarterback who has turned tutoring draft prospects into a lucrative business.
Whitfield gave Manziel a brief history of Browns football in February while working with Johnny Football in San Diego, and Manziel proved he was listening by what he said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
The Houston Texans have the first pick and Manziel has made it clear he wants to play in his native state. But if it’s Cleveland, he says that would be fine, too. The Jacksonville Jaguars, also in need of a quarterback, pick third,
“If something happens, and it’s the Cleveland Browns, I’m going to pour my heart out for the Dawg Pound and try to win a Super Bowl for Cleveland,” Manziel said. “I don’t care if they’ve had 20 starting quarterbacks since 1999. I’m going to be the 21st and the guy that brought them the Super Bowl.”
Even before the workout being conducted less than three weeks before the draft, the Browns probably have a pretty good idea whether they want to use the fourth pick May 8 on the 5-foot-11 3/4, 207-pound quarterback known for his improvisation.
“(He’s a) gifted playmaker,” Browns coach Mike Pettine told reporters at league meetings in March. “The play starts when he makes the first guy miss. That’s exciting to watch, but to transition to the NFL, he’ll have to be able to play in structure (and show on) his fifth-step (when his) his foot hits the ground that he can execute a throw.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to think that wouldn’t happen and I think he’s capable of doing it, but when you have that ability to improvise like that, that’s what makes him special and maybe separates him from other guys.”
Pettine is doing a good job of masking the Browns’ plans for a quarterback in this draft, even if that isn’t his intention. He said Derek Carr of Fresno State is the best pure passer and said if you were going to draw the ideal quarterback, you would draw Blake Bortles of Central Florida.
Manziel took the unique approach of being in full pads at his pro day. Cynics said he did that so he would look taller for all the scouts, coaches and general managers on hand. Manziel, who completed 61 of 64 passes that day, said he was in pads to show he isn’t scared of anything.
“I don’t play that way on the field,” he said afterward. “Why come out here in a scripted workout and be scared of anything?
“I can make any throw out here on this field and hopefully compete with anybody. I’m an extremely coachable kid and I’m ready to learn. I just want these guys to know my focus is football.”
One of the biggest questions about Manziel is how he would survive a 16-game NFL season if he runs as often as he did at Texas A&M.
Manziel’s pro day workout, in which he did nothing but pass the ball in various drop-backs and rollouts, impressed Mike Mayock of NFL Network enough for him to make Manziel his top quarterback in the draft, ahead of Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville. But Mayock issued a warning.
“If you draft him in the top 10, he’s a unique talent,” Mayock said on NFL Network after Manziel’s pro day on March 27. “If he doesn’t learn to win from inside the pocket, he’s not going to be a big success in the NFL.
“However, if he’s willing to hang in there, go through his throws, and then it breaks down and he breaks out, that’s fine. But he’s going to get broken in half if he thinks he’s going to run the ball 20 times a game.”
Manziel played two seasons for the Aggies. He attempted 825 passes and completed 565 of them for 7,438 yards and 59 touchdowns. He threw 22 interceptions.
Manziel carried the ball 334 times in two seasons. He had 201 carries and 434 pass attempts in 2013. He was sacked 22 times. That computes to running the ball on 30.6 percent of the snaps Manziel took last year.